SC-28—Protection of Information at Rest
>Control Description
>FedRAMP Baseline Requirements
Additional Requirements and Guidance
SC-28 Guidance: The organization supports the capability to use cryptographic mechanisms to protect information at rest. SC-28 Guidance: When leveraging encryption from underlying IaaS/PaaS: While some IaaS/PaaS services provide encryption by default, many require encryption to be configured, and enabled by the customer. The CSP has the responsibility to verify encryption is properly configured. SC-28 Guidance: Note that this enhancement requires the use of cryptography in accordance with SC-13.
>Discussion
Information at rest refers to the state of information when it is not in process or in transit and is located on system components. Such components include internal or external hard disk drives, storage area network devices, or databases. However, the focus of protecting information at rest is not on the type of storage device or frequency of access but rather on the state of the information.
Information at rest addresses the confidentiality and integrity of information and covers user information and system information. System-related information that requires protection includes configurations or rule sets for firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, filtering routers, and authentication information. Organizations may employ different mechanisms to achieve confidentiality and integrity protections, including the use of cryptographic mechanisms and file share scanning.
Integrity protection can be achieved, for example, by implementing write-once-read-many (WORM) technologies. When adequate protection of information at rest cannot otherwise be achieved, organizations may employ other controls, including frequent scanning to identify malicious code at rest and secure offline storage in lieu of online storage.
>Cross-Framework Mappings
>Programmatic Queries
Related Services
CLI Commands
aws kms list-keysaws s3api get-bucket-encryption --bucket BUCKET_NAMEaws ec2 get-ebs-encryption-by-defaultaws ec2 describe-volumes --filters 'Name=encrypted,Values=true'>Assessment Interview Topics
Questions assessors commonly ask
Process & Governance:
- •What policies govern the implementation of protection of information at rest?
- •How are system and communications protection requirements defined and maintained?
- •Who is responsible for configuring and maintaining the security controls specified in SC-28?
- •What is your cryptographic key management policy?
Technical Implementation:
- •How is protection of information at rest technically implemented in your environment?
- •What systems, tools, or configurations enforce this protection requirement?
- •How do you ensure that protection of information at rest remains effective as the system evolves?
- •What network boundary protections are in place (firewalls, gateways, etc.)?
- •What encryption mechanisms and algorithms are used to protect data?
Evidence & Documentation:
- •What documentation demonstrates the implementation of SC-28?
- •Can you provide configuration evidence or system diagrams showing this protection control?
- •What logs or monitoring data verify that this control is functioning correctly?
- •Can you provide network architecture diagrams and firewall rulesets?
- •Can you demonstrate that FIPS 140-2 validated cryptography is used?
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